Final proofs

I just got the final proofs for review. I've been feeling disjointed and out of sorts and diffusely anxious since I got up this morning, so I'm happy to be able to focus on the book.

Here are two versions of the same Mark Sandman song. I can't decide which one I like better. They both speak to me on a day when I feel like this.

Redbird is a folk supergroup: Jeffrey Foucault, Kris Delmhorst, and Peter Mulvey.

Mark Sandman is in my book. I'm posting this before actually watching it. I was going to post the Sandbox album track, but I can't resist live music.

Bits and Bobs

My message to a bunch of poets and artists and other such folks, talking about how I had a book coming out, was met with a reception that suggested to me that I ought to have been clearer in the subject line.

The book will be out in June. There's no way to preorder it.

There will be several ways to buy it when it's actually in existence. It'll be on Amazon (hard copy and Kindle). FutureCycle Press, the publisher, will be selling it. Finally, I will have copies to sell at readings and such. I haven't figured out whether I'll be able to fulfill mail orders, as the price isn't yet set.

So if you're interested, the best thing to do is join my mailing list.

Video du jour, inspired by the need to make my subject line into a pun.

Testing

I'd say "move along, nothing to see here," but I'll throw in a song. It's still May Day, at least where I am. I like this stripped-down version of "Albion Sunrise" because I can crank it up in the car and sing harmonies with it.

Again, email me if you want to be on the mailing list for ordering my book. I won't spam you. I'm not organized enough to spam you.

Bonus poet grave photo. Check out the typo.

Finally on the Horizon

Greetings.

Publishing can be a hurry-up-and-wait prospect. I signed the contract for The Unbeckonable Bird in April 2017. I started messing around with mailing lists in June or July. I was heavily involved in revisions in January. Now it's proofs and cover art and all the fun stuff--just about a month before the publication date.

This isn't a bug; it's a feature. FutureCycle Press publishes a book pretty much every other week, and we've stayed pretty much on schedule.

I've always been like this anyway: sitting in my kitchen in my basement apartment on a Tuesday morning, with Romeo Void on the MTV, typing out my psych paper just in time to turn it in at 9:30 a.m., which was as early as I ever scheduled a college class. So if it all happens at the last minute, that's cool with me.

I just got the mailing-list monkey off my back by disconnecting from a, um, thingy that was supposedly easy to use but that had too many confusing features. I have fewer than 30 people on my mailing list right now; I don't need all of that nonsense. If you want to be on the mailing list, please email me at unbeckonable.bird at gmail dot com, preferably with MAILING LIST in the subject line, and give me your name and email address. Include other info, such as snail mail address, Twitter handle, etc., if you want. I won't use it for anything nefarious.

I'll be redesigning this rather jarring-looking page soon, as well as giving you more information and probably more music videos.

Until just now, I didn't know that the "Never Say Never" video was black and white. My college roommate and I had only a black-and-white TV on our kitchen table, so all of MTV was black and white.

Four Poems at Music Camp

I'm still unpacking from Richard Thompson's Frets and Refrains music camp, which would be an extraordinary experience even if I weren't an insufferable Thompson fan from way back.

There are a couple of nights of open mic in the camp's roadhouse, and this year I was able to do a little poetry reading there, and my fellow camper Rick Innis was kind enough to record it. I was reading off my phone--a little weird, but it's nice to pretend to be a millennial once in a while.

I followed a performance by the Scandinavian metal trio A Norse With No Name, a Thompson tribute called "Nordic Black Viking 852." I make brief reference to my opening act in my remarks.

I think the video can be seen here; I'll come back and tinker with things if it's not viewable.

Greetings

I've got a book of poems coming out in summer 2018.

The title is The Unbeckonable Bird.

The publisher is FutureCycle Press.

I'm very excited. As I write this, I'm trying to put together some promo postcards. Maybe you found one. Now I envision myself stuffing my snippets of poems into bottles to cast into the wild sea--although you'd be more likely to find my essence in Diet Dr Pepper cans.

I hope you'll come back here for more info as it becomes available.

EDITED TO DELETE LINK--revamping mailing list 1 May 2018 PMW